“April 19, 1912. Dear Folks:  Al was out to see us Wed. evening and told us you were nicely located. Fess has been at home sick since Monday P.M. he has gone to the office now for a little while he is not well yet and if he does not get well soon he will take a trip to Battle Creek Mich. have a new stomach made out of his old one. The rest of us are well. Love to all   U ? s [Unis?]”

Addressed to:  “Mr. John Hormell, New Smyrna Florida, General Delivery”

This was a great one to research. Nothing was found in the New Smyrna area for the addressee, John Hormell. Maybe the Hormells were snowbirds and the Florida address was temporary. And the sender’s name is awfully hard to read, and Unis or Eunice a rather popular name, so nothing definite was found there. However, Fess turns out to be Fessenden W. Lough of 983 Woodruff Place East Drive, Indianapolis. If you enlarge the image you can see the street number just to the left of the porch gate. I was having no luck searching for Fess without having his last name. So, what the heck, I tried Googling just  “983 Indianapolis” and came up with the correct address above, (what are the odds?) but of course I didn’t know it was the correct address at first. But then Find A Grave was a major help, showing Fess’ full name with wife Josie (Healton) Lough. The search then in Ancestry.com for Fessenden W. Lough revealed the city directories which showed the street address of 983 East Drive (W. P.) – What the heck is W. P.? I searched for 983 East Drive and that brought up East Street, not Drive. But getting back to Google again brought up the Woodruff Place result, then the light bulb went on, (duh or voila, whichever your preference) – W. P. for Woodruff Place.  In 1912, Fess was Chairman for the Prohibition State Headquarters, and we might assume from what the sender wrote that this could have been a little stressful. Incidentally, the Battle Creek Sanitarium mentioned on the card was a health resort renowned for stressing the holistic approach to healing. Anyway, in the same household in 1912 is Avis M. Lough, stenographer, and Thomas W. Lough, no occupation given. Maybe this card was written by Avis, but the signature seems to start with a “U.” Back to the city directories:  The 1914 shows Fess’ occupation as Evangelist, with Thomas Lough still living with him. A little further online searching shows that Fess was a Quaker, born Montgomery, Indiana in 1874, and that his parents are Thomas W. Lough and Lydia Andrus.  In searching again online it was excellent to find that this beautiful house still exists today. (But what are the fairly evenly-spaced marks on the house’s top front trim in this photo?)

Divided back, Real Photo Postcard, used. Postmarked from Indianapolis, Indiana April 19, 1912.

Price:  $15.00

Sources:  Find A Grave memorial number 84015216. (www.findagrave.com)

Publisher R. L. Polk & Co., Indianapolis city directory 1912, p. 992 and 1914 Indianapolis city directory, p. 900. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]

Earlham College; Richmond, Indiana; Indiana Yearly Meeting Minutes. Ancestry.com. U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1994

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Creek_Sanitarium